L.A. County inspector general to retire after 12 years as Sheriff's Department watchdog

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Los Angeles County’s inspector general is retiring as chief watchdog for the Sheriff’s Department, stepping down from the post he has held since it was first created a dozen years ago.Max Huntsman, 60, announced his plans in a letter Tuesday.“It has been my honor to work with a talented, brave, and tireless group of public servants to ensure that the public knows what its government is doing,” he wrote.Huntsman, a former L.A.County prosecutor, also included comments that were critical of how the county has responded to efforts at civilian oversight of the Sheriff’s Department.Time and again, he wrote, efforts by his office “were ignored” by county leaders.“The county is putting all its efforts into convincing the public and the courts that it is following the law and has no room to honestly evaluate itself and make the changes it would need to really follow those laws,” Huntsman told The Times in a message early Tuesday.

“That’s not compatible with my oath of office.”In stacks of detailed reports, the inspector general’s office has described a wide range of abuses and failures by the Sheriff’s Department, the L.A.County Probation Department and county leaders.

Huntsman’s office has documented poor conditions in L.A.County’s jails, called out the Sheriff’s Department’s for noncompliance with portions of of the Prison Rape Elimination Act, and criticized the inability or unwillingness of sheriff’s department officials to rein in so-called deputy gangs, whose tattooed members have repeatedly been accused of misconduct.

The Inspector General’s Office has independently probed hundreds of on-duty shootings by deputies, along with other use of force incidents.Under Huntsman’s direction, the office also scrutinized deficiencies in the county’s skilled nursing facilities during the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic.In 1991, Huntsman gradua...